


The Hale Family is Jewish

by whatthefridge



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Archived From fanfictionfridge Blog, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Meta Essay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 02:56:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16945653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthefridge/pseuds/whatthefridge
Summary: A critical analysis of real-world facts that point to the Hale family potentially being Jewish.





	The Hale Family is Jewish

My new headcanon: the Hale family is Jewish.

Hale is an interesting surname. A preliminary search on it will show it has [English/Scottish roots](http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/hale). But! Jewish people have been changing their surnames to be less obviously Jewish for ages. Hale can very well be a revision of Halevi, meaning “of Levi,” Levi being one of the twelve Jewish tribes. 

This is especially noteworthy if we consider crypto-Judaism, or the "secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith,” which is most common among Jews from Spain (known as [Sephardic](http://www.jewfaq.org/ashkseph.htm) Jews) who were either expelled in 1492 or forced to convert ([wiki source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Judaism)). There is a whole study done on the [secret Jews in Colonial America](http://www.millennialstar.org/part-x-sephardic-jews-and-the-lds-connection-sephardic-names-and-what-to-look-for/), and Hale is among a list of possible surnames Sephardim took on to adapt to their new country.

It’s not a far stretch to imagine the Hale family is descended from secretly Jewish people from Spain, and it ties in nicely if you also want to headcanon them as having Mexican roots. The werewolf thing could be another reason the Hales are not overtly Jewish. There is, in fact, discourse about [werewolves in the Torah](http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2011/12/was-rachel-imeinu-killed-by-werewolf.html), specifically if Benjamin (the youngest of the twelve brothers/tribes) was a werewolf. It’s not painted as a positive trait. So it’s not hard to see the Hales minimizing negative attention from both anti-semites and werewolf hunters. If you’re like me and see Gerard Argent as having a Hitler persona, it’s even more apparent.

I also tried wrapping my head around the Celtic imagery associated with the Hale family, specifically the triskelion, and guess what I came upon: “[Are the Celts one of the ten lost tribes of Israel?](http://www.irishcentral.com/news/are-the-celts-one-of-the-ten-lost-tribes-of-israel-233823021-237790101)”

Before I go on, I want to make sure we’re all on the same page, so here’s an extremely simplified background: What we call “Judaism” today refers to the tribe of Judah. The Israelites were divided into twelve tribes, each given their portion of land in Israel. The tribe of Levi were priests, and didn’t get land, so the “twelve” often refers to two sub-divisions of the tribe of Joseph. Another complication is that, while “Judaism” refers to Judah, it technically also includes the tribe of Benjamin, but because we lost the distinction, the tribe of Benjamin is considered lost as well. So, for general understanding, we know of the tribe of Judah and Levi (who, for secular purposes, are both lumped under “Jewish” people), which makes for ten lost tribes.

With that said, there’s many theories about who are part of the lost tribes. One of them is that the Celts began as the tribe of Dan. There’s even evidence to suggest there’s [Hebrew elements in Druidism](http://www.britam.org/traditions16.html). And while it’s a known fact that the Celts, and the Druids, were very much pagan, the “ten tribes had been exiled for worshipping the gods of the peoples around them” (i.e. it’s very likely the tribe of Dan assimilated into the pagan culture of the people around them).

The Hale’s ancestors made the triskelion THE symbol of the family, and it's really cool imagining the possibility that the Celtic symbol has Hebrew origins that most people aren't aware of. It allows the family to embrace their real heritage while simultaneously appearing to cover up their Jewish roots.

As an aside, the name “[Talia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talia_\(given_name\))” happens to have Hebrew roots, and even though her brother’s name, Peter, has Christian roots, it’s [surprisingly common among Jews](http://www.jewfaq.org/jnames.htm). I’d like to think that Talia gave her children English legal names (Laura, Derek, and Cora) on top of [Hebrew legal names](http://crazyjewishconvert.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-is-hebrew-name-and-what-does-it-do.html) that we don’t know of.


End file.
